***So much happens in this chapter. I did a LOT of research (if you couldn't tell, I've never done drugs before - I've never even had morphine LOL). As a result, I wrote a 3,500-word chapter for this book. This will be one of your longest ones XD

It also contains mentions (nothing explicit) of rape/sexual assault. As I said, it's nothing explicit.***

***(Jay's POV)***

I pull my car up in front of a local diner, chattering away to Nya. I'm so glad she's not just running off without dealing with her problems, and all my excitement coming out in mindless rambling. I think I've discussed my family's Christmas traditions, my mom's recipe for a bomb apple pie, the time I laughed so hard I snorted chocolate milk out of my nose, and how I've refurbished my shower so I don't slip whenever I get in anymore.

Nya seems to follow the conversation, though, which is great. And she finds half the stuff I talk about funny, which is the entire goal of this talk in the first place. I want to show her that I can be a nice, interesting guy without being pushy or trying to make her love me. Girls like guys who make them laugh, right?

Nya pushes open her car door, stepping into the parking lot after quickly looking both ways. I assume she's checking for police officers and not traffic at this end of the parking lot.

"You're a pretty cautious person, aren't you?" I ask, climbing out of my own seat.

She waits for me to meet her at her side of the car before answering. "I have to be. I don't want to go to prison...or worse." She mumbles the last part under her breath.

"They're not going to give you the death penalty," I reassure her. "You weren't the one who instigated the armed robbery. That was Cole."

"No one but Cole, the police chief, and the detectives originally assigned to my case know that." She rubs her palms over her jeans, indicating her wariness of telling me her story. "Let's go inside. I don't like being out in the open."

"Okay." I loosely wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Is this okay? It's just for show – people will pay less attention to your features if I'm blocking half your face with my arm."

She raises an eyebrow. "Don't think I don't see right through that. The only reason why I agreed to go out with you in public is because I don't want to go back to your apartment and end up getting you in trouble. Being closely involved with me is bad for your career."

"Thanks," I smile. "That's really thoughtful." I point toward the doors. "Let's get inside. It's pretty busy, so no one will notice us."

I set us in motion, and her hips brush my leg as she walks. I memorize the pattern of her stride – a steady, rhythmic 'right-left, right-left' step. It paints a picture in my mind of the solid, grounded, and dependable person she is.

It kind of bothers me how something could shake her so much that she'd run away from home and everything she loves. Cole's father-in-law must be a ruthless guy.

Once we're inside, we locate an empty table for two. This diner is an old-fashioned, 'seat yourself' kind of place. It's pretty fun. Plus, the walls are decorated with inventions from the past century. My parents always loved this place.

After a waitress comes and takes our beverage order, I fiddle with the ketchup bottle next to me. "So...have you ever been here before?"

"No," she replies. "I typically try to avoid places like this – places with customers who come every day and might ask questions of newcomers. But then, I thought I was unnoticed for the past year and a half at the coffee shop, and you recognized me." She sighs. "I liked the coffee shop because it wasn't policed. Emos and druggies could hang out there, but so could middle-aged, nine-to-five adults who wanted a good cup of coffee. I guess I got too comfortable there. I fit in with the business and the dark literature and all that." She unfurls her napkin.

"I'm happy you frequented the coffee shop," I remind her. "And as you said, it isn't policed – the Ninjago City force has more problems to worry about than the occasional weed smoke behind our dumpsters – and the only person there who recognized you was me."

She releases a sigh. "It just stinks that I got so comfortable around there, I didn't think anyone would know whom I was. That was stupid of me."

"Maybe it was meant to be," I suggest. "I can help you get cleared of Cole's charges now." And it means we got to know each other.

"Yeah." She clears her throat, then quiets her voice. "Where do you want me to start...with, um, Cole?"

"The beginning. I like hearing stories in full." I spot the waitress coming and stop Nya before she begins to speak.

Once the frazzled staff drops off our drinks and takes our food orders – Nya picks something randomly off the menu, not caring what she eats in light of the tale she's about to impart – I train my eyes on Nya, smiling. "So tell me what you have to say. I'm all ears."

She takes a deep breath, fiddling with her napkin. She tears off a tiny piece of the paper and begins tracing the design with a fingernail. "Okay. Um, so...it really started during my senior year of high school. I lost my parents at the beginning of that year, and it was...tough for me afterward. Kai took care of me." She bites her lip.

I grab my own napkin and a pencil and scribble this down. "I know you were eighteen at the time of the armed robbery. How old were you when the lesser crimes began?"

She shrugs. "I was seventeen when the burglaries started. I obviously wouldn't have been charged much for those – it was just petty theft, and I was still a minor. Plus, those crimes were really more Cole's thing. I only stole once before I...well, I'm getting carried away." She exhales.

"It's okay," I say reassuringly. "Take your time. I understand that this is your story." While I'm waiting for her to gather herself, I grab my cell phone out of my pocket and start recording our conversation. I guess I'm forgetting quite a few steps for my first interrogation. If this even counts as an interrogation – it's more like being a supportive, listening friend, in my opinion.

Nya wraps her arms around her stomach, keeping her face down and away from the public. "Okay. So...as I said, the burglaries started when I was seventeen. I dated Cole for about a month before he suggested the first one, and at that point, I was fed up with life and my brother. My parents' death really had me questioning everything I'd ever been taught." She tears another piece off her napkin.

"I get it," I smile sympathetically. "It's okay. I've never grieved – well, unless you can say breaking up with my first girlfriend was grieving – so I can't pretend to understand what you went through, but I know what it's like to be lost. That's why I searched so hard to find my birth parents." I look at her glass of water with lemon and push it to the side, offering her my soda pop instead. "Would you like some sugar? Sweets always make me feel better."

She shakes her head gently. "I'm fine. I'm just finding the right words."

"Okay." I wait for her to collect herself.

After a moment more of playing with her napkin, she takes a deep breath and speaks again. "Cole was really all I cared about back then. He was my first boyfriend, and he made me feel special. You probably know how that is."

I nod vigorously. "Oh my gosh, yes."

She shakes her head. "Yeah, well, that's what Cole did for me. It was simple for him to ease me into the world of crime. I didn't even put up a fight." She bites her lip. "I was young, stupid, and hurting. I only believed at that point whatever my parents told me was right and wrong, and with them gone...I guess I lost my standard for morals. I could've looked up to Kai, but I didn't. I looked up to Cole.

"So that's how the burglaries started. I would usually just drive his car and park it someplace discreet while he snuck into somebody's house and stole whatever he wanted. It wasn't much – it was usually something generic that could be pawned off for a reasonable amount of money. He didn't want to get caught, so he didn't take anything huge." Her expression darkens. "And as I said, I stole something once in a burglary – I wasn't under the influence of anything, and I did it intentionally. It was from the house of an old family friend of mine. Since Cole was worried their dog would bark at him, he sent me in. He said the animal would recognize me and not put up so much of a fuss.

"He was right. I stole a piece of jewelry that night. Again, it was something generic and never worn. It would be long gone by the time the family realized it was missing." She closes her eyes. "And to reward me for my work that night, Cole took me to a party with some of his friends. And they had...edibles. I tried one. Made me feel good, for once."

"I'm sorry." I lace my fingers with hers so she doesn't destroy her napkin before we even get our food. "No one should feel so bad that they feel like they have to take drugs. I'm really sorry, Nya."

"Me, too." She heaves a sigh. "So that's how it started. It really didn't seem so bad at first. I mean, it's not like I had crazy side-effects from the brownie I ate. I just felt really, really good – like nothing mattered for the rest of the night. I liked that feeling, so the next time Cole invited me to one of those parties, I accepted his invitation. I had edibles again. I felt better.

"After a few of those parties, Cole offered me drugs in their legitimate form. He told me just taking marijuana in its pure form wouldn't have as much of an effect as the edibles, so the stuff he was smoking was laced with cocaine. I figured that if it was just trace amounts, I would be fine. So I took it, and all I can say is that I wanted more. Life stunk, but now I had a way out. Things just went downhill from there."

I frown at her, squeezing her fingers in mine. "But...you're okay. You seem perfectly normal – you're off drugs? Your mind and body are healed."

"Yeah." She looks away. "Thankfully, I could only take drugs when I was with Cole. Kai would have killed me if he smelled them on me or found any on my person, so I couldn't take very much, and I always detoxed at Cole's the day afterward. I mostly did weed and cocaine...all except for two times."

"Two...times?" I ask, more than a little concerned. "Did you ever overdose?"

"No," she replies. "Cole and his friends weren't intent on sharing too many of their goods. I guess that worked out in my favor." She looks down at our joined fingers, not pulling away.

I guess she derives some strength from the support.

"Then...what did you take those other two times?" I ask cautiously. "You're kind of scaring me."

"You're not going to like this," she warns me quietly.

"I want to know, Nya," I whisper. "We're friends, right? I'm here for you. Plus, whatever you tell me could help you get absolved of some of your charges. I'm not a lawyer, but I know the law." I stroke her knuckles.

"Right." She closes her eyes, breathing out shakily. "The first time I had something stronger than coke was toward the end of the relationship I had with Cole. What I took that night was GHB, also known as liquid ecstasy. I didn't know what it was, for the record."

I pale. "Nya...that's...a date rape drug."

She does her best to ignore me, but her face tightens at my statement. "Cole drank too much that night and was getting sick in the restroom. I was awkwardly hanging out on the outskirts of the party. I hadn't taken any drugs yet – I came late that night. I was about to head out, even though I wanted a high, because nobody offered me anything when I asked. Cole was my free pass for drugs. Without him, I didn't get any." Her face hardens. "Well, I didn't get most anything without him. There was one guy – I have no clue whom – who saw me alone. He was a predator."

"I think I can see where this is going," I swallow, "and I don't like it."

"I never said my story was a good one." She dares to look at me with haunted dark eyes. "Listen, maybe I shouldn't be telling you all this. We hardly know each other, Jay. I know this is supposed to help me avoid criminal charges and all, but..."

"If you don't trust me, you don't have to tell," I whisper, communicating with my gaze that I care about her. "But it could help us in getting your charges resolved."

She stares at me for a moment, then looks down at the table. "Maybe we should save this part of the story for later."

"Okay." I sit back, still holding her hands in a show of support. "Pick up wherever you feel comfortable."

"Thanks." She swallows. "Anyway, do the math, and you can figure out what happened that night. It wasn't Cole who did it, just so you know. He may have gotten me into crime, but he wouldn't have...you know. He had limits." She withdraws her hands from mine, placing them in her lap and staring out the window.

"He was so understanding," she goes on. "Usually, he was a gruff, mature guy, but after what had happened to me, he showed me a sweeter side of himself. I came to think...well, that he was the guy I was going to marry. I would've given up anything for him." She spits the last words, then growls, "I was stupid."

"You weren't stupid. You were young and hurting." I mess with my straw, still focused on what she told me only moments ago. "So that's why you were so wary around me at your apartment. And that's probably why you didn't want me saying I was in love with you so soon, right?" Gosh, she didn't need that kind of advance. I should've suspected something like this had happened when I saw her missing persons file, but it never even crossed my mind.

"I'm cautious." She exhales. "Meeting your parents helped. They love you and trust you, even if you are a serious liar. The way they've raised you tells me you don't intend to hurt others. Not intentionally, at least."

"Of course not," I reassure her. "You're safe with me. And...I'm really sorry, Nya. For everything."

"I still take precautions." She sips her water slowly.

I study her. "You know I'm here if you ever want to talk, right? Yeah, I know this is about getting you absolved of some of your criminal charges, but I'm here for you. Holding something like that inside, never getting justice for what happened...that has to be hard." I shake my head.

"Thanks." She releases a long breath, then changes the subject. "The other drug I took was on the night we had the armed robbery. I only trusted drugs Cole gave me at that point, and I felt like I needed them to escape...well, to escape what happened when I was slipped liquid ecstasy. Drugs were my way out of my haunted memories.

"Not only was I becoming an addict at the time, but Cole and I had been burglarizing more. He told me he was planning something big – a way to get us out of Ignacia and far away from our life of hurt. He never told me what his plan was, though. He probably knew I'd disagree."

"And...this was the armed robbery plan," I realize.

"Yeah. We needed a lot of money to move to somewhere out of the city and live together happily ever after." She studies her fingernails. "Cole didn't have many friends who supported him on his secret plans. That didn't work out in his favor, though, because he needed other people to bring his idea to fruition. He decided he would have to rope me into things, even though I wouldn't agree to his idea if I knew what it was.

"One afternoon, when I was over at his house, he offered me a drug I'd never heard of before. I trusted him, so I took it. It made me...really suggestible. It caused me to do a lot of things I wouldn't usually do – it was like a total personality change."

"And thus, you were willing to help rob the bank," I extrapolate.

"Precisely."

I frown. "The only drug explicitly found in your getaway car was marijuana. There were also traces of cocaine. Do you know what Cole gave you?"

She shakes her head. "He called it DM. It took me a while after I had it to recover fully – I was jittery for the next day, and I had trouble focusing for the next few weeks. I had run away to Ninjago City by the time it got out of my system."

That stops me in my tracks. "You said...DM?"

"Yeah." She frowns. "Do you know what it was?"

"Yeah," I say quickly. "You unwittingly took it, right? You didn't know its effects on behavior when you had it?"

"I didn't," she answers carefully. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh my gosh." I lean over the table, knocking over my soda pop in the process. I don't even bother to keep the liquid from running all over my coat and into my lap.

I look directly at Nya. "I think we can get you off with just petty theft and drug abuse charges. Plus evading arrest and using a fake ID, of course. However, I think you have a pretty good case to take to court. You wouldn't have evaded arrest and faked an ID if it weren't for the police chief. The petty theft and drug abuse was mostly due to the death of your parents and eventual rape, right?"

"That doesn't change that I participated in an armed robbery, Jay," she sighs. "I still decided to take the drugs Cole gave me. In response, I stole money and assaulted a pedestrian. I'm guilty."

"Not necessarily," I reply, adrenaline thrumming through me. "DM is such that you become a completely different person while on it. Yeah, if you meant to take it, you could be charged for armed robbery. If you didn't know what it was, it's just drug abuse." I tap my fingers along the table. "Why did you run from the police, Nya?"

"Because I knew that with the new police chief, I'd be the one who was slapped with most of the criminal charges for the armed robbery. I'd be in prison for probably fifteen years, and with the harm Cole's friend caused to pedestrians, it might be even worse."

"Were you ever explicitly threatened by the police chief?" I ask quickly. "Did he threaten you and in any way cause you to evade arrest?"

She chews her lip. "I...sort of?"

"What does 'sort of' mean?"

"I confronted him about trying to cover up Cole's part in the robbery," she confesses. "It was the day before I left for Ninjago City."

"And what did he do?" I question, tapping my foot over the ground rhythmically.

"He told me he would slap whatever charges he wanted on me if I refused to cooperate with him on the case."

"What charges, Nya? Did he mention any serious ones?"

She wrinkles her forehead in concentration. "I was still coming off the DM at the time, so my memory's not perfect...but it's possible someone overheard our conversation. It's likely he did say something threatening. All I can remember, though, is running because I didn't want to possibly face murder charges. It's not like I had any place to live in Ignacia, either – Cole wouldn't let me stay with him when he started going with the chief's daughter, and I wasn't willing to face Kai after the whole incident." Her voice breaks on her brother's name.

"It wasn't your fault," I promise. "Nya, DM is just the abbreviation for Dark Matter. Ever heard of it?"

She shakes her head solemnly.

"It's not commonly known because it's not a street drug. Those in possession of it can get years in prison. Whoever takes it, whether you're a sinner or a saint, is turned into a completely different, wicked, suggestible version of themselves. And if you didn't know Cole was offering you that specific drug when you took it, you can't be cited for what slight harm you did during the armed robbery." I reach out a hand to tilt her chin up. "Trust me, Nya, you could've done something much worse than giving a pedestrian a concussion while under the influence."

***Okay, so did anyone actually guess what DM was, or did you all just kind of not realize its importance to the story until now?***